“Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.”
James Thurber
Being a former meditation teacher I am often asked about this subject. It is a fascinating one for me because I started meditating from the tender age of 17. I appreciate that in some Buddhist countries this starts much earlier, yet growing up in a small and rather conservative historical town in Britain, this was seen as somewhat unusual.
Because I didn’t have the space at home while still living with my brothers and parents, I would go and sit on a bench in a small graveyard at the centre of the town before work. On cold mornings I would wrap myself up in a hat, gloves, a warm scarf and a very thick trench coat. I wouldn’t say it was an easy practice or one that necessarily produced large and ripe fruit, yet it temporarily gave me a sense of that peace that we all seek.
Many years later, I started attending a local Buddhist meditation class. The two practices l learnt, I found to be somewhat more rewarding. One based on mindfulness (another blog altogether), and the other on developing loving kindness towards all living beings. I practiced diligently, attended retreats, studied Buddhist texts; felt that I had found peace in my life. Not realizing at the time that all I was seeking in practice lay no further away than the end of my own nose.
One of the main aims of meditation is to reach the state of ‘no thought’, that is, no thought from the personal mind (read ‘little mind’ or brain here). However, after learning about the Three Principles and the simple understanding that it is the power of Thought that creates the reality we experience, I found literally overnight, that any form of practice or application was superfluous for experiencing the peace that I had searched for all my life; because practice is not a prerequisite for that peace. When personal thinking falls away, all we are left with is our natural state.
I began to experience what we could call the ‘state of meditation’, that is having a clear if not mostly empty mind. Our state of consciousness shifts automatically when our thinking slows down; colours look brighter, the world looks more beautiful; we start to see people through the eyes of understanding, empathy and acceptance. In such a way, we begin to see that each individual is doing the best they can given their personal thinking.
This was a huge revelation to me, especially after all that effort, I had discovered that what was below all that discipline, striving and application of practice was the natural state of all beings. I had simply created an illusion of dissatisfaction with life or stress (as we all do) via the power of my own mind. It was my muddled and personal thinking that had covered over the pure state of consciousness that lay beneath.
Remarkably, all of us are born in this pure state of consciousness and the ‘undressing’* of the human condition is unquestionably simple. It is not what we had previously been led to believe; that we must work hard at it to have a good life, we must practice diligently to move forward and develop ourselves. That happiness, peace and a sense of serenity are not possible without all this effort. In fact, if we can truly see how our thinking is simply covering up our natural state, we find we can relax, and then ‘coming home’ to who we really are, becomes as easy as shedding our clothes at the end of the day in preparation for sleep.
The beauty and peace we seek in life, is our birthright and is no further away than our next thought.
Now go and have the best life ever!
*Thanks to A.B. for this wonderful metaphor
